Firmly believing that all the OT Stormtroopers and TIE pilots are later generation Jango clones and disagree with the EU's interpretation of them ever being recruits.

That the clone's accelerated growth only means they grow up faster, but not age faster once they are mature, that would be accelerated aging.

That the Tusken women and children were not innocents and deserved Anakin's wrath along with their men. A lot of old westerns had hostle Indian tribe's women and children being just as nasty as their braves.

That only the 6 films so far count as canon, and that the EU is garbage trying to overwrite Lucas.

Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people actually agreed with this statement. TPM is my least favorite film, but Naboo is one of my favorite planets in the saga. It's absolutely gorgeous, and the ambition and artistry it took to present that planet easily trumps any individual location from the OT.

Firmly believing that all the OT Stormtroopers and TIE pilots are later generation Jango clones and disagree with the EU's interpretation of them ever being recruits.

That the clone's accelerated growth only means they grow up faster, but not age faster once they are mature, that would be accelerated aging.

That the Tusken women and children were not innocents and deserved Anakin's wrath along with their men. A lot of old westerns had hostle Indian tribe's women and children being just as nasty as their braves.

That only the 6 films so far count as canon, and that the EU is garbage trying to overwrite Lucas.

Prefering Lucas' version of Star Wars over the EU's version.

Liking Darth Vader's nooo added in ROTJ.

On the Tusken Raider point.... How in the world does "I saw some really mean Native American kids in an old western movie" translate into "Yeah Anakin was totally justified in killing Sand Person toddlers and women."

At no point does the movie suggest that the women or children took any part in Shmi's torture. If anything, our very brief glimpse at Sand People culture suggests otherwise. In the moment when Anakin comes out of the tent, there are three important details that we see:

1. A child is seen playfully running through the camp, as children often do

2.A woman is tending to a fire

3.Two man are sitting as guards in front of the tent

From this we can infer that this culture probably adhered to traditional tribal gender roles. The women likely did not concern themselves with captives or anything like that. At the very least, there's nothing to suggest they were involved.

Even analyzing it that far is missing the point of the scene, however. Anakin did what he did in a fit of rage. He knew, deep down, that it was wrong, even though he felt somewhat justified in his anger. He wanted to get revenge for his mother, and he took that revenge to the darkest extreme possible.

If YOU think the borderline genocidal massacre of an entire village of men, women, and children is justified because they (meaning one or two of them who were directly responsible) killed Anakin's mom, then you may want to rethink your personal ideas of what people "deserve" for their wrong doings.

Who's to know what sandpeople's rituals and behaviour was apart from what we see in the films. There's no implications other than they are quite violent, scavange and keep to themselves (I don't recall seeing any in Mos Eisley or any other built up settlement).

The parallel with The Searchers is appropriate, correct and, most likely, intended on GL's part, but like a number of cinematic references in all six films, not meant to be taken to the utmost limit.

For example, GL admitted that the Throne Room scene at the end of SW/ANH was modelled after scenes in the notorious Nazi propaganda epic Triumph of the Will, but solely on a visual basis, there's no other sinister connotations to be inferred.

The parallel with The Searchers is appropriate, correct and, most likely, intended on GL's part, but like a number of cinematic references in all six films, not meant to be taken to the utmost limit.

For example, GL admitted that the Throne Room scene at the end of SW/ANH was modelled after scenes in the notorious Nazi propaganda epic Triumph of the Will, but solely on a visual basis, there's no other sinister connotations to be inferred.

If you substitute "Force" for "will" we potentially have a title for a film! Or title for the full 6 films to date!

Well I wasn't trying to start anything, just trying to explain my opinion a little better since the Sandpeople are based on classic Western archtypes which include some gritty and un-PC stuff. Wasn't saying the stuff was real, but many westerns used it but most aren't realistic and full of stereotyping and sadly racism. To be clear I was only talking about classic movie archtypes, not that GL was pushing an agenda (which he isn't) and I was only trying to give examples of other films using said common archtypes. But I guess some skewed what I said as being racism and flamed me as such. If people can't explain or defend their unpopular opinions without being censored or falsely accused of trying to start a flamewar or of being racist, then maybe this whole thread should be locked since the very subject of unpopular opinions is bait for a toxic flamewar.

The parallel with The Searchers is appropriate, correct and, most likely, intended on GL's part, but like a number of cinematic references in all six films, not meant to be taken to the utmost limit.

For example, GL admitted that the Throne Room scene at the end of SW/ANH was modelled after scenes in the notorious Nazi propaganda epic Triumph of the Will, but solely on a visual basis, there's no other sinister connotations to be inferred.

It is still implied that the Sand People tortured Shimi, not intended to be a slur but a classic film archtype of a group of hostile people that can take any form. Even House Harkonnen from Dune fits that archtype of super hostile group of people. Sadly alot of people seem to confuse archtypes as slurs which is what started this whole mess. Regardless, wither if it was just the men or the whole tribe would not make it any less or more of a slur if you must view it as a slur in the first place.

The parallel with The Searchers is appropriate, correct and, most likely, intended on GL's part, but like a number of cinematic references in all six films, not meant to be taken to the utmost limit.

I dunno. I think it can be taken as far as anyone wants to take it -- which also means as far as no-one really has.

For example, GL admitted that the Throne Room scene at the end of SW/ANH was modelled after scenes in the notorious Nazi propaganda epic Triumph of the Will, but solely on a visual basis, there's no other sinister connotations to be inferred.

Actually, in "The Making Of Star Wars", by J.W. Rinzler, the George Lucas of the time asserts a rather different thing:

"I hadn't seen [the Riefenstahl film] for about fifteen years," Lucas says. "I had wanted to see it again because, early in the writing process, I was thinking of doing a scene with the Emperor on the Empire planet, and I wanted to do that like 'Triumph of the Will' ... but the end of the movie is just what happens when you put a large military group together and give out an award."

And "solely on a visual basis"...

I think there are any number of coiled meanings and reverberations -- within the original film; and certainly throughout the larger saga.

This is Star Wars through and through: an epically-layered visual story. Endless koans and contortions. Quotations, punctuations, paraphrases, puns, etc.

The weakest point in the saga is that Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side, joined the evil Emperor, and became Darth Vader, almost exclusively because he could'nt stand to lose the persons he loves...Especially his dear wife he had seen dying in several visions (nightmares ?...).
What a letdown...

Ironic that a thread asking for unpopular opinions has to be edited to avoid flame wars, but really, the idea that unarmed families of Tusken Raiders are ok to massacre because Western films were racist makes no sense. Slicer, the actual objection seems to have sailed over your head: you can call the Tusken Raiders 'hostile' all you want, and speculate about whether some of them tortured Shmi, that doesn't make it a-okay for Anakin to lop off the heads of everyone in an entire village of sentient beings, confess his mass murder to his girlfriend, and be rewarded with a hug from Natalie Portman. It's a very peculiar message and it's not the 'sand people' archetype that is the issue at all.

I share the unpopular opinions here that TPM was not inherently a bad movie. It had a few problems, a couple significant, but it wasn't nearly as awful as it later seemed to be thought, and I recall rave reviews and high enthusiasm for a few weeks before everybody started acting like they had hated it by the first 30 minutes of the film. Its main issue was that as a stand-alone little space opera it's fine and dandy but as the bedrock of Star Wars it makes some awful creative calls, like making Anakin 9 years old and godlike already. This essentially shoots the storytelling in the foot and forces us to limp along a good bit slower than should have been necessary. But it was a very pretty movie. Sure, the Naboo fight scenes look almost cartoony, but much of the film was visually very rich and attractive, and I always really liked just looking at it. Much better than the (understandably, due to the story) dusty and muddy colouring of AotC and darkness of RotS.

The weakest point in the saga is that Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side, joined the evil Emperor, and became Darth Vader, almost exclusively because he could'nt stand to lose the persons he loves...Especially his dear wife he had seen dying in several visions (nightmares ?...).
What a letdown...

Not sure what else you thought would be the catalyst for Anakin's turn. It is made clear from TPM that fear of loss and Anakin's control issues are going to be his downfall (Yoda practically predicts it), and before the PT began I recall much speculation hinged on the core concept that Anakin's turn, especially as it almost caused the same for Luke when he ran off to fight Vader before he was ready rather than lose the people he cared about. There were other factors compounding this fear, such as the Jedi Council's complete lack of respect for Anakin, hang-ups and issues over his slave upbringing, losing his mother, and being caught up in a political world where he never knew who he could trust, all of which contributed to Anakin finding solace in the dark side. I bash Lucas a lot but the consistency of the theme of loss and fear is one area that I think his writing was very effective.

Anyway, I know, it's just your opinion and that's fair enough, I'm just a bit confused because if it's a let down I imagine you expected something very different and I can't imagine what that would be.

If people can't explain or defend their unpopular opinions without being censored or falsely accused of trying to start a flamewar or of being racist, then maybe this whole thread should be locked since the very subject of unpopular opinions is bait for a toxic flamewar.
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I agree with this actually,

the thread is called "unpopular" opinions,

anyway I'll list 3

ESB is over rated (i said it, sue me)

I don't find Luke as whiny as everyone says he is (at least compared with his dad)